OB Merchendise - Need Your input - Orchid Board

Marty · #1 02-02-2012, 12:50 PM

Howdy,

I thought I'd ask you guys what sort of products you would like in order to support OB ? We used to use cafe press and fact is that CP ends up making the money and the funds raised by OB end up being pretty lame. I also found their quality lacking a bit.

I was thinking to have some products made specifically for OB. This has some dangers of course, I don't want to order OB product that no one wants. This was the first year that I ordered calendars and in order to comply with the min order I inadvertently ordered too many calendars and looks like I'll be eating them now. This year will be a bit of a write off as far as fund raising is concerned.

Please post in this thread, what products would interest you and would stimulate you to throw in your bid for OB support, if you can be specific it would be great.

Examples
- Calendars (what types? wall, desk?)
- Posters, Hats, T-shirts ?
- Orchid Books? I was thinking of adding a bookstore that would sell some of the favourite Orchid books.

Calendars are a really fun project, but due to the nature of the beast, it's a highly perishable item. They go in Nov and Dec, but come February and you're begging people to take them at a loss.

I'd love to hear some of your ideas.

Tindomul · #2 02-02-2012, 05:47 PM

Mouse pads? Maybe other computer related stuff since people remember orchid board the most when on the computer. However that might be more expensive than you want???
Maybe special screen savers or wall papers (animated with orchid board logos), sell them cheap but more likely to sell in large quantaties.
it be nice if I could make my computer folders looked like different orchids. Maybe someone can make a few dollars that way.

bballr4567 · #3 02-02-2012, 06:05 PM

Posters would be good as well. Photos to be framed as well. I know we have quite a few users who take amazing photos so they might want to donate their time and pics.

Leafmite · #4 02-02-2012, 07:28 PM

Keychains, playing cards, note cards, cute little mini replicas, book ends, pens, T-shirts...

Jayfar · #5 02-02-2012, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marty

- Orchid Books? I was thinking of adding a bookstore that would sell some of the favourite Orchid books.

This one's a no-brainer and pretty easy to do. Just set yourself up with an Amazon affiliate account and an aStore. The percentage you receive is on a scale based on volume, ranging from 4% to 8.5%.

JaneEyre · #6 02-03-2012, 12:06 AM

This maybe a too big of a task/project but orchid supplies might be a good thing to sell. We all need pots, bark, stakes, light meters, fertilizers, etc. I would buy that from OB to support it.

Discus · #7 02-03-2012, 03:21 AM

Hi Marty,

I was keen to get OB calendars (probably several, the remainder of which I'd gift to my orchid society) - problem was the postage was more than the items; living out of the US/Canada makes that sort of thing pricey. And by the time surface mail gets here, the year would be over. There must be companies that offer more reasonable print runs, although likely at a worse margin. It was also quite annoying that unless you were in US/Canada, the "omg, I have too many, get rid of some" offer was not available, but I imagine that's related to shipping expense. That reminds me, I need to pick up my new credit card at the bank, seeing as my old one just expired :/

Computer-themed things, stickers, fridge magnets and the like are probably your best bet and survive postage fairly well. Mugs, pots and other fragile/perishable things, probably less so.

I imagine you could use Amazon's affiliate scheme to drum up a small cashflow (but like cafe press, they get most of the proceeds!). I imagine there are code widgets (presumably similar to the "misting" one!) that can scan OB for book titles/ISBN numbers and add in hyperlinks back to Amazon with your affiliate code. You could alternatively appeal to members to do so when they mention books on OB.

The main challenge is distance and shipping given the rather international scope of OB.

camille1585 · #8 02-03-2012, 04:10 AM

I had the same issue as Discus with the calendar, international shipping was just too darn expensive compared to what café press charged.

And I think it would be the same for whatever items I'd want. o I think I'll just stick to renewing my forum support membership, at least all of the money goes to OB!

But I like items like mugs, mousepads, maybe cool little keychains. Posters too. I like the idea of orchid books, although I already have an extensive collection of them!

Discus · #9 02-03-2012, 04:23 AM

It might actually be quite cool to compile "The Orchid Board Guide to Orchids" as a "dead trees" book. The market is quite crowded though, so I'm not sure how successful it would be.

Quite a lot of work, but crowdsourcing it would be pretty awesome if several people were interested in contributing to it.

There's certainly enough growing, writing and photography talent to pull it off if people are willing to put in their time/ideas/resources.

RosieC · #10 02-03-2012, 05:23 AM

Same problem with the postage for the calendars. I would have bought some but it was just far to expensive when postage to the UK was added. Buying more calendars didn't bring the postage down per calendar (if I could have bought two for the same postage as one I would have done).

I think whatever merchandise you do you need to assume it's only going to be sold to USA members as those of us in the rest of the world are far less likely to with the postage costs.

On the issue of 'what do I like' the answer is calendars are about the only thing I would be likely to buy. I don't drink hot drinks so don't buy mugs. I like to use the mouse direct on the table as most mouse mats just get in the way, I don't wear anything but plain T-Shirts I don't use posters or keychains... I'm pretty boring

However things like desk calendars and wall calendars like the ones you have done in the past do attract me. Desk calendars are useful for places like work, I like to have an orchid calendar on the wall in my kitchen if possible so if postage wasn't a problem that's what I would go for.